Alisha Coleman-Jensen

Household Food Security in the United States in 2010

An estimated 85.5 percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2010, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (14.5 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 5.4 percent with very low food security—meaning that the food intake of one or more household members was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food. The prevalence rate of very low food security declined from 5.7 percent in 2009, while the change in food insecurity overall (from 14.7 percent in 2009) was not statistically significant. The typical food-secure household spent 27 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. Fifty-nine percent of all food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs during the month prior to the 2010 survey.

Food Insecurity Among Households With Working-Age Adults With Disabilities

Prior research has shown that food insecurity is more common among U.S households with an adult who has a work-limiting disability than among other households. To provide more detail on the prevalence of food insecurity by a range of types of disabilities, we analyzed data from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (2009 and 2010). We focused on two groups of households that include adults with disabilities: (1) households with a working-age adult with a disability that prevented work (not in labor force-disabled); and (2) those with a working-age adult with a specified disability (hearing, vision, mental, physical, self-care, or going-outside-home disability) and no indication that their disability prevented them from working (other reported disabilities). Food insecurity was most prevalent among households with an adult who was not in labor force-disabled (33.5 percent), followed by those with a working-age adult with other reported disabilities (24.8 percent). Households with no working-age adult with a disability had a much lower prevalence of food insecurity (12.0 percent). Close to two in five households with very low food security included an adult with a disability. The study findings demonstrate the importance of disabilities as a determinant of food insecurity.

Food Insecurity and Health Outcomes Among Older Adults: The Role of Cost-Related Medication Underuse

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between food security and cost-related medication underuse among older adults (persons aged 65 years and older) in the United States; and to determine if this relationship differs by sex, chronic disease status, and type of health insurance. Data are from a combined sample of older adults in the 2011 and 2012 National Health Interview Survey (N = 10,401). Both bivariate and multivariate analyses show a dose-response relationship between food insecurity and cost-related medication underuse among the elderly—increasing likelihood of cost-related medication underuse with increasing severity of food insecurity (P < 0.001). This association is not conditional on sex, chronic disease status, or type of health insurance. However, females and those with a chronic condition are more likely to report cost-related medication underuse than males and those without a chronic condition respectively; and older adults with Medicare and Medicaid or other public insurance are less likely to report cost-related medication underuse than older adults with only Medicare.

Food Insecurity and Cost-Related Medication Underuse Among Nonelderly Adults in a Nationally Representative Sample

OBJECTIVES We investigated whether nonelderly US adults (aged 18-64 years) in food-insecure households are more likely to report cost-related medication underuse than the food-secure, and whether the relationship between food insecurity and cost-related medication underuse differs by gender, chronic disease, and health insurance status. METHODS We analyzed data from the 2011 and 2012 National Health Interview Survey (n = 67 539). We examined the relationship between food insecurity and cost-related medication underuse with the χ(2) test and multivariate logistic regression with interaction terms. RESULTS Bivariate and multivariate analyses showed a dose-response relationship between food insecurity and cost-related medication underuse, with an increasing likelihood of cost-related medication underuse with increasing severity of food insecurity (P < .001). This association was conditional on health insurance status, but not substantially different by gender or chronic disease status. Being female, low-income, having no or partial health insurance, chronic conditions, functional limitations, or severe mental illness were positively associated with cost-related medication underuse. CONCLUSIONS Using food insecurity as a risk factor to assess cost-related medication underuse could help increase identification of individuals who may need assistance purchasing medications and improve health for those in food-insecure households.

Food Insecurity After Leaving SNAP

Households that have recently left the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are more likely to be food insecure than those who remained on the program. We analyze data from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement to find reasons for this seeming anomaly. Analysis of a 2-year panel sample of households interviewed in 2 successive years found different conditions in 2 distinct groups. One third of households that left SNAP in one year returned in the following year and were more likely to have had very low food security in both years. Households that left SNAP in 1 year and remained off through the following year were also more likely than current recipients to have had very low food security in the first year, but by the end of the following year, the prevalence of very low food security was lower than among those still on the program. Logistic regression analysis indicates that, for households with very low food security, leaving SNAP was strongly associated with higher income and full-time employment, suggesting that most such households left SNAP because their income had increased so that they were no longer eligible.

Improving Food Security Classification of Households With Children

We examine the extent to which the household food security classification methods currently used by the US Department of Agriculture may bias comparisons of food security between households with and without children and between households with children of different ages. An alternative method for classifying households with children as to their food security status is described that removes the source of those biases by considering the food security of adults and children based on separate measures. Using data from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplements from 2001 to 2011, the analysis suggests that the current methods may have overstated the prevalence of food insecurity and understated the prevalence of very low food security in households with children vis-à-vis households without children. The extent to which very low food security may have been understated increased during and following the economic downturn of 2008.

Predictors of U.S. Food Insecurity Across Nonmetropolitan, Suburban, and Principal City Residence During the Great Recession

In 2009, 14.7% of U.S. households were food insecure, lacking consistent access to adequate food. Food insecurity increased in all residence areas with the “Great Recession” beginning in 2007, with the greatest increase in suburbs. The Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement was used to examine the likelihood of food insecurity across residence areas. Net of income and other household characteristics, suburban households were more likely to be food insecure than nonmetropolitan households and as likely to be food insecure as principal city households. The results suggest that during the recession economic hardship spread increasingly to suburbs.

Food Insecurity Is Associated with Subjective Well-Being among Individuals from 138 Countries in the 2014 Gallup World Poll

Background: Food insecurity is an aspect of living conditions that is particularly important for quality of life, health, and subjective well-being. The implementation of the 8-item Food Insecurity Experience Scale in 147 countries in the 2014 Gallup World Poll provided an unprecedented opportunity to understand the association of food insecurity with subjective well-being.Objective: We examined how food insecurity relates with measures of living conditions and how food insecurity and other living conditions relate with physical health and, in turn, subjective well-being.Methods: Data were collected from individuals aged ≥15 y by telephone in 38 countries and via face-to-face interviews in 111 others. The available sample was 132,618 (138 countries) and 122,137 (137 countries) for the daily experience and life evaluation indexes of subjective well-being, respectively. Daily experience was a continuous measure and life evaluation was categorized into thriving, struggling, and suffering. We estimated 6 linear or logistic regression models for each index controlling for country as a fixed effect.Results: Food insecurity was associated with the other 3 measures of living conditions: household income, shelter and housing, and employment. Food insecurity explained poor physical health and lower subjective well-being beyond other measures of living conditions. Instrumental and emotional support was associated with higher subjective well-being. The associations of food insecurity with subjective well-being were larger than with other explanatory variables. Food insecurity was associated with subjective well-being within each of the 4 World Bank income classes of countries, with a larger magnitude of differences for the higher-income classes.Conclusions: Food insecurity was strongly and negatively associated with subjective well-being in a large global sample of individuals aged ≥15 y. These results demonstrate the consistency of goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which has targeted 2030 to ensure food security for all people, year-round, with other goals to reduce food insecurity.

Do Food Prices Affect Food Security for SNAP Households? Evidence from the CPS Matched to the Quarterly Food-At-Home Price Database

In this paper, we estimate the effect of food prices on food insecurity for SNAP recipients using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the recently published Quarterly Food-At-Home Price Database (QFAHPD). By constructing this sample we can directly measure the relationship between food prices and food insecurity for U.S. households. We form a local food price index based on amounts of food for a household of four as established by the Thrifty Food Plan. We use an econometric model that accounts for the endogeneity of SNAP receipt to food insecurity and for household-level unobservables. We find that, on average, the effect of food prices on the probability of food insecurity is positive and significant: an increase of one standard deviation in the price of our food basket results in increases of 2.4 percentage points in adult food insecurity and 3.7 percentage points in child food insecurity. These marginal effects amount to 8.4 and 15.9 percent increases in prevalence of food insecurity for adults and children, respectively. These findings have important implications for policy in that SNAP benefits might be beneficially indexed to local food prices.

Using systems science to gain insight into childhood food security in the United States: Report of an expert mapping workshop

ABSTRACT Eliminating childhood hunger and supporting households in need of food are US policy priorities, because food insecurity in the US remains elevated postrecession. The objective of this study was to bring a systems science lens to the issue of childhood food security. We used a qualitative systems mapping process (a “soft” systems science approach) to develop and describe a systems framework for childhood food security using a visual map. A first step was accomplished through convening a facilitated expert workshop in which we developed the systems map shown here. The systems map contains information on the sectors (e.g., government, private etc.), actors (e.g., children, caregivers, etc.), programs and policy levers (e.g., food and nutrition assistance programs, public goods and services, etc.), and flows (e.g., money, food, social support, etc.) pertinent to childhood food security. Situated at the center of the map is the interrelationship of competing demands and resources for caregivers and children. We use the systems map to discuss how qualitative and quantitative systems science techniques can be applied to further advance childhood food security research by defining a research agenda. The present article serves as a call to action to invest in systems science research on childhood food security.